Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday denied responsibility for the actions of an oligarch indicted for his role in a propaganda campaign targeting the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
“Please make a distinction between the Russian Government, Russia as a state, Russian citizens and certain legal entities,” Putin told an Austrian media outlet, according to an interview transcript posted late Tuesday by the Kremlin. “Russia as a state has nothing to do with this.”
Putin was denying any responsibility for the cyberattacks against the Democratic Party and the release of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails through WikiLeaks. U.S. intelligence officials blame Russian cyberspies for the incidents, however, and special counsel Robert Mueller indicted oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin for attempting to “sow discord in the U.S. political system,” according to court documents.
“Could it be that the media and political standards in the countries of the consolidated West have been driven down to such a low level that a Russian restaurant keeper can sway voters in a European country or the United States?” Putin asked. “Isn’t it ridiculous?”
Prigozhin has been nicknamed “Putin’s chef” due to his restaurant businesses and close association with the Russian leader. The oligarch also has close ties to the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary force that has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department for its role in the invasion of Ukraine by unmarked Russian forces. The mercenaries suffered heavy losses in a recent attack on a U.S. position in Syria.
The Russian leader compared Prighozin to an American liberal billionaire George Soros, who backs a nonprofit that describes itself as “work[ing] to build vibrant and tolerant democracies” around the world. “I often hear from my American friends that ‘America as a state has nothing to do with [his activities],’” Putin said. “The State Department will say that it has nothing to do with them – rather it is Mr Soros’ private affair. With us, it is Mr Prigozhin’s private affair. This is my answer.”
Putin previously has allowed that “patriotic” Russians might have been involved in the cyberattacks. “If they are patriotic, they contribute in a way they think is right, to fight against those who say bad things about Russia,” he said last June.
But oligarchs don’t take such actions without Kremlin direction or permission, according to experts.
“They are not self-made businessmen in the American sense,” Roman Borisovich, founder of the Committee for Legislation Against Moneylaundering in Property by Kleptocrats, told British officials. “Every one of them made money through a relationship with the Russian Government … That bond forces them to do all sorts of chores for Putin, whether hidden, visible or invisible.”
